As an aside, I cannot stand people who tell their children to hug or kiss other people. It just seems wrong to me to force children into physical contact with people they may or may not want to have contact with. Is that weird? Maybe it is just me but I my Mum used to do it to me and I hated it.

Sometimes kids don't know when it's appropriate to hug, shake hands etc. When I do it, I'm cluing them in, not forcing them into physical contact. I certainly wouldn't ask them to hug anyone they weren't close to, and I wouldn't force them into it, if they seemed uncomfortable.

I find most kids are pretty huggy and you have to peel them off like limpets if the genuinely want to be close to you and express their affection. Most adults who ask a child "Can I have a hug?" tend to get a pretty honest answer and sometimes that is a very emphatic 'no!'. Telling them to hug someone just doesn't sit right with me. Asking them if they would like to is better but it still has the air of a command about it. I am fully on board with kids doing as they are told (within reason) but their personal 'bubble' is up to them to manage. A child coming to an adult from a position of wanting to do something affectionate is fine. (Unless they have something off their nose. Arrgh! Get away from me!)

Some people might think it's mean to not hug a child because it's not their fault they're sick.

She didn't ask about mean. She asked about rude.

And to some people, mean=rude. I'm sorry I didn't make that clear earlier.

Well, some people need to realize that just because they think it, doesn't make it so. To be more specific, if they choose to be offended by silly things, that doesn't automatically make those things rude.